The Closing of the American Mind

In the book The Closing of the American Mind, Allen Bloom made a point that the project of the enlightenment [classical liberalism ] was at a stage of crisis. He did not offer much in the way of resolution.

It might seem a small consolation   but Allen Bloom did have two ideas that he suggested. Learning the Republic of Plato seems to have been the top priority. "Great books" after that. He also did mention learning Torah in the beginning chapters as a kind of hint but nothing that he explicitly advocated.[I mean to say he mentioned his relatives that had in their background, basic learning of the Oral and Written Law and that that gave them a depth of understanding of the human condition that the NY Times and other modern writings could not compare to.

He also mentioned Hegel in a very positive way, suggesting he might have seen something important there. It is hard to know what though. Allen Bloom in fact had been taught by a Hegelian professor so you you count this as bias towards his teacher. Or it could be he saw something important there.

The truth be told , Thomas Jefferson in a similar vein held the only way the American Republic could survive was by education and for that purpose he founded the university of Virginia. He knew the system of the American Constitution was only workable for a certain kind of person. Not all people.
Only people with a Judaic-Christian orientation.

[My own opinion about this is similar to Allen Bloom and Thomas Jefferson. It is learning Gemara, Musar (Mediaeval Ethics), and Math.] That is to say I do not think all and any education is worthwhile. So in that sense I am disagreeing with Thomas Jefferson. Education yes but only a certain kind of education. Also I am not thinking of the Republic of Plato as being the best of his works but rather the middle dialogues. Also I am thinking Gemara [as shorthand for learning the whole Oral and written Law] Musar Ethics and Math as connecting one's inner self to the Platonic Forms.

[Not that I presume to be anywhere near the greatness of Allen Bloom of Thomas Jefferson. Rather it is my opinion that their ideas need to be modified a bit in because of hindsight.]

I mean to say here that if you look at Allen Bloom's middle chapters about the "self" he is is skimping on the  Kantian approach. [He was quite aware of Kant but in his treatment of the Self he had a lot of material to cover before he could get to Kant.] So what I see is the self of Kant, the "ding an sich,"the thing in itself is something Schopenhauer put the Platonic forms into. Thus all one needs to do in theory is to awaken those Platonic Forms.

religious teachers

The main power of religious teachers comes from their pretense of secret knowledge. Especially knowledge of Kabalah. So they are in particular jealous of the Kabalah Institute [founded on the approach to the Ari of Rav Ashlag] as being a threat to their supposed superiority about this secret knowledge. The only way one can really see through their deception is by experience. There is really very little in the way of checking up on them otherwise.
Only people that were believing in them and burnt are the ones openly saying that they are all frauds, and these people that have been burnt are usually not believable because of the fact that they are losers at this game of fraud. Losers tend to have little of no credibility because of the fact that they are losers even though they are the ones in position to have actually seen the truth.

The truth is religious teachers do not have knowledge of the Ari at all. Most have not even read through the entire works of the Ari at all. And those that have learned the Ari in some depth are usually ignorant of Gemara and thus unqualified. The whole thing is  a scam. 

Even the so called Kabalah yeshivas in Jerusalem are frauds, and are just private county clubs for the macho man and his thugs to sit around all day and chat. Beware.



[In any case for actual knowledge of the Ari the Kabbalah institute seems very good. They have a great edition of all the Ari and without pretense of great knowledge of it they study it seriously. It is the best and most honest approach to this that I have seen.]


This should not be construed as a critique on the Holy Torah, not the written Law nor the oral Law. Rather this is a critique on the creeps that pretend to know it an keep it. in so doing the give the Torah and all Jews a bad name. The religious world are more like enemies of the Jewish people and of the Torah than the friends they claim to be.

In fact I think the Oral and Written Law are very important and I think Reb Israel Salanter found the best approach to make this simple and easy--to learn Musar [the Ethics of the Torah.]

I know on a blog with the Gra in the title it is hard to understand why I would put being in the Armed Forces as good thing. While being in the Armed Forces could cramp your ability to keep all the Mitzvot with all the details. 

Still getting married takes precedence. If a Litvak (Lithuanian) Rosh yeshiva's daughter is a possibility I figure then those people  are not looking at this blog anyway, and that would have happened already.  So obviously you were by-passed. 


 And the religious world is a disaster zone when it comes to shiduchim. [It is  a cheat and a racket for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many  baal teshuvas.]
The main thing there is the fraud and scams. This is besides the fact that the religious world outside the yeshivas is simply a fake religion. It pretends to keep Torah, but worships their human gurus. 

So to be man, it seems to me there is little choice but to  do the Armed Forces thing. [Unless something clicks in university.]

War is justifiable if it is to protect one's home.

Slavery is a biblical law. There are many laws concerning how to deal with slaves. See the laws of slavery in Maimonides. It is a whole book. And the laws of the Bible are forever. There is nothing to indicate that the laws were temporary. The very last of the prophets Malachi ends his prophecy with "Remember the Law of Moses." The whole idea that the Law can be abridged when it says openly that it is forever is ridiculous.  Besides the fact that it says by the laws that they are forever like Tzitzit and Chalah, there is the verse  הנסתרות להשם אלהינו והנגלות לנו ולבנינו לעשות את כל דברי התורה הזאת

And for what purpose would there be a document that you can change its meaning at will? There would be no function for such a document except to give power to the people that claim to understand it and represent it and get money because of their supreme holiness.
A document that's meaning can be changed has no legitimate function in the first place.
We have to say the the Torah has a meaning that is independent of interpretations. And it is only upon us to discern than meaning, not to change it. 

the religious world

c An religious teacher will be the first person to betray you to the enemy.Much less be trustworthy.

The main profession the religious world learn is how to ask others for money. That is their main goal in life. How to get money from others. 


The way they do this is sneaky. They pretend to be doing public service by getting people to  do meaningless rituals and then expect to get paid for that. They also make yeshivas that are frauds. They pretend we are all one big happy family but then when one is on board the ship and no longer is able to learn an independent livelihood they throw off the pretense and it becomes about being their slaves.

This is not Lashon Hara (slander) because just think fora minute if I am right. Lets say all religious teachers are this exact way. Then anyone who knows this and is quite about it is transgressing every second the prohibition אל תעמוד על דם ריעך Thou shalt not stand by and see the blood of your neighbor spilled.

r68 F Major

I am very happy about the improvement to the American military that I have seen recently. My Dad had invested a large amount of his life towards improved and upgrading the military might of the USA. While in the US Air Force he served in the European theater of action. Later literately invented night vision.[At first it was telescope that focused infra red waves. Later the US Army did its own modification to make it small and portable as we see today in night vision helmets. After that he was the head of one of the teams that developed  cameras for the U-2. Then he was recruited to build laser communication for the Strategic Defense Initiative SDI (Star Wars).